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Analysis: SEC dominance? The final tally of the BCS era says 'yes'

APTOPIX BCS Championship F.JPG

Florida State's 34-31 victory against Auburn in the national championship game ended the Southeastern Conference's seven-year title run and the gave the Atlantic Coast Conference its first national championship since FSU in 1999.
(AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

As Auburn surprised most by jumping out to an 18-point, second-quarter lead against Florida State in the BCS National Championship game Monday, a familiar chant broke out in the Auburn side of the Rose Bowl.

"S-E-C," the fans screamed.

It's a chant that has become prevalent in early January bowls during the BCS era. Usually, the SEC dominates these games and fans from its 14 (used to be 12) members are able to puff their chests, knowing that the SEC has again made a compelling case for college football superiority in the BCS court.

It didn't work that way this season.

Florida State, of course, came back and beat Auburn, 34-31 to break the SEC's string of seven straight national championships. The loss sent the SEC to an 0-2 record for the year in its two BCS bowls, following Oklahoma's win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.

However, the SEC's overall bowl record for the season is 7-3, best among the BCS automatic-qualifier conferences and second best among all the conferences, with only the Sun Belt, at 2-0 in minor bowls against non-BCS opponents, recording a better record. The SEC played nine of its 10 bowls against other BCS auto qualifier conference opponents and half of the 10 bowls were against ranked teams.

For the "SEC is King" argument, this bowl season gives us ambivalence. The overall bowl record gives us a strong argument to be made for the SEC. The BCS record gives a case for detractors.

That, it seems, is often the case. Only, it's often the overall bowl record where detractors make their case, but the BCS bowls where the SEC dominates.

The two losses this season dropped the SEC's record in BCS bowl games to 17-10 (a final tally, given that the BCS era just ended). That's a .630 winning percentage, still the best BCS record among all the conferences. The only other leagues with winning records in BCS games are the Pac 12 (13-8, or a .620 winning percentage) and the Big East/American Conference (9-7, including Central Florida's win this season in the Fiesta Bowl). And the SEC won nine of the 16 national championships in the BCS era.

The SEC's winning percentage in BCS bowls is better than its winning percentage in non-BCS bowls (.594) during the BCS era and there have been years where the BCS success allowed the league to save face after otherwise poor bowl performances.

Most notably, in 2009 and 2010, the SEC had a mediocre 11-9 bowl record that had its detractors screaming that there was no evidence of separation between the SEC and its opponents. But in those same two years, the league went 3-0 in BCS bowl games, including both national championship games.

So what does all this tell us?

Quite simply that the SEC was the best conference in college football, just not quite as dominant as its most fervent supporters would portray.

To these folks, every SEC bowl loss can be explained by motivation. The most obvious example -- Alabama's lethargic loss to Utah in the 2009 Sugar Bowl -- gets projected to every other SEC bowl loss.

On the other hand, SEC critics point to every loss as some proof that the SEC isn't what it's made out to be.

That's a valid argument only if you are arguing against those who suggest the SEC is playing a completely different brand of football than the rest of the country. That Texas A&M and Missouri quickly became quality SEC teams upon their move from the Big 12 disproves that claim.

Johnny Manziel's Texas A&M tem was the No. 6 team in the SEC's bowl pecking order this year and the Aggies rallied to beat the ACC's No. 3 team, Duke. AP Photo/Jamie Martin

That said, sometimes the "SEC is overrated argument" gets out of hand. Many give Bob Stoops' critique of the SEC credence, given his Oklahoma team's win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. But his argument -- that it's "one or two or three top teams," carrying the SEC banner with a weak bottom half -- doesn't hold water.

The SEC won seven bowl games this year in mostly competitive matchups and the top two teams lost. That means it was the league's depth, not a dominant few, that carried the league.

The SEC has won more bowl games than any other league in the BCS era. In the BCS era, five SEC schools -- not "one, two or three," as Stoops suggested -- won national championships and there hasn't been a repeat SEC champion since Tennessee in 1998.

One or two teams? Stoops was kidding, right?

The BCS record confirmed what the NFL draft tells us every year. There are more players coming out of the SEC and with the money floating around the SEC's members thanks to the sport's massive popularity in the region, its members can acquire the coaching and support system needed to turn that talent into dominant teams.

The SEC's bowl record in the BCS era shows that this is exactly what happened. Perhaps the SEC isn't as dominant as some make it out to be, but it was clearly the best league in college football in the BCS era.